District report suggests Charter Oak cheated on standardized tests

PEORIA — Staff members at Charter Oak Primary School admitted directing special education student to erase answers on state standardized tests and in some cases erasing answers themselves, according to Peoria School District 150's preliminary investigation of alleged testing irregularities at the kindergarten-to-fourth grade school.

PEORIA — Staff members at Charter Oak Primary School admitted directing special education student to erase answers on state standardized tests and in some cases erasing answers themselves, according to Peoria School District 150's preliminary investigation of alleged testing irregularities at the kindergarten-to-fourth grade school.

But that's just one of a cascade of details on alleged testing discrepancies at Charter Oak released during a tense two-hour School Board meeting Monday night.

As they did during the Dec. 16 board meeting, about 200 people turned out to show their support for John Wetterauer, the Charter Oak principal on paid administrative leave in connection with the investigation.

His supporters chanted "Bring John back; bring John back" as board members went into executive session after the meeting ended, apparently to determine Wetterauer's future with the district. As of 11 p.m., the board was still meeting in private and about 100 people were still waiting in the gym of Von Steuben Middle School, where the meeting was held to accommodate the large crowd.

However, after coming out of executive session, the board took no action on Wetterauer, opting to give him a chance to respond to the report.

During the meeting, board members and Superintendent Grenita Lathan listened with tense expressions as about a dozen people castigated the board and the administration for its handling of the popular principal of an award-winning school.

Bob Carruthers, a former District 150 principal and human resources director, was among those urging the board to reinstate Wetterauer. Carruthers also urged board members to work with the Peoria Police Department and a state regulatory agency to restore the district's school security staff to campus police. The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board recently deactivated the campus police force, thus removing their ability to carry guns, because school districts are not authorized to have their own police departments.

The board investigation of the Charter Oak testing discrepancies was submitted Friday to the Illinois State Board of Education. It charges staff violated testing protocols when giving the Illinois Standards Achievement Test to special education students and Wetterauer failed to train staff on administering the test, though he had them sign a sheet for "ISAT" training, making it appear as if he did.

The report, conducted by the school district's attorneys, marks the first time anyone connected to District 150 has used the term "cheating" in reference to the testing discrepancies announced by the district Dec. 10.

The data "suggests some form of cheating occurred" for the benefit of former Charter Oak students who are not fifth-graders at Mark Bills Middle School, according to the report.

The investigation reviewed data for 26 students who went from Charter Oak to Mark Bills between 2011 and 2013. In some cases, scores on standardized tests dropped by as much as 41 percent in reading and 45 percent in math once they moved from Charter Oak to the middle school.

Page 2 of 2 - On other tests, the scores of those students remained in an consistent range when they moved from Charter Oak to the middle school.

An array of the area's top law enforcement officers, including Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard on crutches, joined Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis, state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth and Carl Cannon, founder of ELITE, to explain ELITE's new pilot program, Don't Start, an offshoot of the Police Department's Don't Shoot program.

The board also approved the purchase of six properties in the Peoria High School area — 1811 N. North St., 1812 N. Ellis St., 410 W. Nebraska Ave., 420 W. Nebraska, 424 W. Nebraska and 430 W. Nebraska — for a total of $209,000.

With the latest purchase, the district has spent about $705,500 buying properties surrounding Peoria High in anticipation of building new athletic fields.

Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or padams@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @padamspam.